All players: I can choose my own dungeon rewards.

The light in the winding underground cave is quite dim, and the lighting is provided by torches lit on the rock wall.

After Wang Zhifan froze a group of cultists, the torches on many roads went out, making it almost impossible to see the road ahead.

Wang Zhifan therefore used the lighting spell granted to him by the Mage Power Box, creating a small ball of light that followed above everyone's head, allowing everyone to escape from the darkness. Huang Neng couldn't help but complain:
"Professor Wang, you are acting more and more like a wizard."

"Haha, you're right to think so."

Wang Zhifan responded with a faint smile.

He said this because he knew that after practicing the Mysterious Chapter of Eternal Freedom in All Space and Time, his power had gone beyond the scope of a regular warrior. Although his player profession was still a warrior-type swordsman, that was just a rough division. To be honest, he was now more like a melee mage who had mastered the power of space and time.

Several people chatted while walking in the underground cave passage, heading towards Melkion's temple. Not long after, they encountered the second wave of enemies in addition to the previous attack.

"Finally I'm here. It's worth my long journey."

Wang Zhifan was very pleased with the arrival of the enemy, because he did not teleport everyone directly into the temple together, just to fish along the way and use his insight ability to collect intelligence.

But this time, the enemy was strange, not the type that would rush over directly. At first, an inexplicable aura appeared around everyone, making people feel nervous for no reason. Then six illusory shadows suddenly flashed in the air, launching a sudden attack on everyone.

The shadow that attacked Wang Zhifan's back suddenly disappeared as soon as it appeared, and Wang Zhifan himself also disappeared. The shadow that attacked Huang Neng was dodged by him just in time, and then Huang Neng flashed behind the shadow, and the blood-red dagger in his hand pierced through the shadow's body. As for the other four shadows that attacked the students, they also failed. They were all stopped by the equipment that Wang Zhifan gave to the students. For example, Allen's clothes emitted white light to resist the attack, and Marina's long whip automatically bound the enemies that appeared and crushed them.

Huang Neng behaved very conscientiously at this moment. After eliminating the opponent who attacked him, he immediately helped others solve the problem, and did not let the students who were unfamiliar with combat get too entangled with the enemy.

At this moment, Wang Zhifan appeared in another place within a kilometer, a small cave separated from other places. As soon as he arrived, he saw a pale man in a black cloak chanting spells and dancing. He didn't know whether he was too excited or too anxious. He was the guy who controlled the phantom just now.

Without saying a word, he activated his insight skills to invade the man's mind and obtain relevant information.

"He is actually a cultist who believes in another ancient god. He came here to communicate, but he was not well received. No wonder he is alone in this place."

Wang Zhifan originally thought that he would capture a character similar to an elite member, but the result surprised him. He quickly dealt with this person and returned to the team.

After returning, he led the team members who had dealt with the second attack to continue on their journey and speed up.

After a short period of time, they encountered almost no resistance and had a smooth journey. It was obvious that the cultists had taken some countermeasures.

When everyone came to the bottom of the passage, they found that the way to the temple was blocked by a huge rock, and the rock was emitting dangerous blue light. Once someone got close to it, they would feel paralyzed, dizzy, and burned. It had a clear effect of dissuading people. It was obvious that the cultists chose to close the temple and retreat.

"Assistant Huang, did you mess with them yesterday? They would rather hide than attack."

Wang Zhifan couldn't help but laugh at Huang Neng in the face of this funny situation. Huang Neng shook his head and responded:

"I just arrested a few people, and didn't cause much damage. Maybe this is a setup for some kind of ritual?"

Huang Neng's words immediately reminded Wang Zhifan. His perception was strong and he could find that there were many cultists with unstable expressions gathered in the temple behind the green boulder. So he subconsciously thought that they were hiding by blocking the door. But now he was reminded and further sensed the interior of the temple. He found that some cultists were gathered together to pray, and they were not in the same state as the other panicked cultists.

"My students, can you tell what this stone is?"

Wang Zhifan, who was a little skeptical, asked the four students he brought with him. The students were also unfamiliar with the stone emitting strange green light and said they had no idea what it was.

"Let's go in and take a look together."

Wang Zhifan therefore chose to bypass the stone and not disrupt the cultists' arrangements. He used the power of space to lead everyone directly to the underground temple.

The moment they appeared in the temple, the panicked cultists around them were stunned at first, and then they surrounded them, shouting wildly.

"For my lord!"

"Destroy the intruders!"

"Sacrifice them to our Lord!"

……

The shouting of these cultists was quite loud and their momentum was strong, but their fighting ability was not that strong. Many of them didn't even have weapons and rushed up with bare hands.

Wang Zhifan casually released the power of ice to control the entire temple. Except for the few people who gathered together to pray in the innermost part and were deliberately not dealt with, all the cultists turned into ice men at once.

"It's a bit too weak. What's wrong with these people?"

Wang Zhifan, who felt something was wrong, shifted his attention to the deepest part of the temple. In that direction, more than a dozen figures in black robes were not affected by the ice source force he released, and were still praying as if no one was around. However, he could sense that these people were also very weak.

What was more strange was that he did not find anything around this group of people that could symbolize the ancient gods. Not even an ordinary statue or portrait, just ordinary ground and walls.

In order to resolve the doubts in his heart, Wang Zhifan planned to see through the cultists who were praying, but before he could use his power, a voice suddenly came:
"Professor, they are holding a sacrificial ceremony! These people are the chosen sacrifices! We must leave quickly!"

The thin NPC student Allen said as if he suddenly realized something, and pointed at the green boulder blocking the entrance to the temple.

Wang Zhifan looked in the direction he pointed and found that the bodies of the cultists he had just frozen disappeared and turned into ice crystals that were quickly absorbed by the green boulder. It looked very strange.

"This kind of power..."

Wang Zhifan felt the powerful energy emanating from the blue boulder spreading rapidly, and it was the strongest force he had ever encountered in this instance, which made him feel that he could only resist it with the power of the law. He could try to resist it and save his own side or other frozen cultists, but he was not prepared to do so.

"Let's retreat first."

Instead of interrupting the prayers of the cultists deep in the temple, Wang Zhifan decisively moved himself and his companions out of the temple. However, they did not return to the direction they came in from, but retreated collectively to the cave passage far away from the temple.

"Professor, why are we suddenly back here?"

NPC student Alice found that the location Wang Zhifan chose to teleport this time was a bit strange, so she asked.

"In order not to disturb the ceremony and to prevent us from becoming sacrifices."

Wang Zhifan simply answered her, then looked at another NPC student, Allen, and said:

"Alan, can you tell what the sacrificial ceremony in the temple was doing just now?"

After hearing what he said, Alan shook his head and replied:
"I haven't seen any records of this kind of ceremony in books, so I can't judge, but I think it's definitely not a good thing."

"Maybe he is praying to the ancient gods to grant him more power."

Luke, a burly student, then interrupted.

"We should know soon."

Wang Zhifan did not comment on their speculation and focused his perception on the interior of the temple in the distance.

At this moment, he sensed that in the underground temple he had just visited, the powerful energy emanating from the blue boulder had swept through all the cultists he had frozen, turning them into ice crystals and absorbing them. However, this power was still not satisfied after devouring all the cultists who had been sacrificed, and continued to spread towards the black-robed people who were praying collectively deep in the temple.

The man in black robe became a little panicked after noticing this situation, and quickly changed the content of his prayer, slowing down the spread of the energy emitted by the green boulder, and even causing it to tend to retreat.

"Haha, you're not willing to sacrifice yourself when it's your turn? Let me give you a hand."

Wang Zhifan, who observed this scene, immediately decided to take action. He transferred half of the black-robed men to the vicinity of the green boulder, so that they were instantly absorbed into it, and were swallowed up by the powerful force emitted by the boulder.

During this process, Wang Zhifan carefully sensed the condition of the boulder and found that he still could not see anything, which meant that it had not swallowed enough.

But the surviving black-robed men in the temple were in a panic. They ran frantically to every corner of the temple and pressed different mechanisms, causing the huge green stone blocking the temple entrance to vibrate and slowly sink into the ground.

“They want to give up?”

Seeing this, Wang Zhifan quickly teleported back to the temple alone. Then, without saying a word, he froze all the mechanisms and the man in black robes, and at the same time activated his insight skill to invade the mind of the person closest to him.

"The ancient gods are about to revive... Humanity is doomed to extinction... Only by becoming the followers of the ancient gods can we have hope of survival... Use the Altar of Withering to offer sacrifices to our Lord and transform into our Lord's followers... After many attempts, there was no response... It turns out that these people's rituals are to transform themselves, and they have tried many times but failed, and many people have been sacrificed in vain. This Melkion is much more deceptive than Dagon."

Wang Zhifan, who had figured out the whole story, remembered the old man who had transformed into a fish-man creature and whom he had killed by the lake yesterday. In the old man's memory, he held a ceremony and received the response of the ancient god Dagon and became his follower, but the unlucky guys in this temple spent a lot of effort and sacrificed many people but got nothing in return. It can be said that the contrast is very obvious.

"That is to say, this unknown ancient god named Melkian is very cold and indifferent. He only accepts sacrifices and does nothing. I am afraid he will not pay attention to me if I perform the ceremony. This path may not work."

Originally, Wang Zhifan had not intervened until now in order to allow the cultists to hold a ceremony to contact the ancient god and save him the trouble of dealing with these matters personally. However, he now knows through the memories of the elite cultists that this ancient god is not very reliable, and it is very likely that any attempt to contact him through the ceremony will be in vain, which makes him sigh that this copy has too many twists and turns.

"I need to try it myself after all. What if there is a miracle?"

Without much hesitation, he then transferred his companions in and asked them to help use the Altar of Withering to perform the ancient god summoning ceremony.

He obtained the arrangement method of the ceremony from the mind of the elite cultist, and then he directed four NPC students to help with the arrangement, such as changing the rituals in the temple and letting the four students perform collective prayers.

As for the sacrifices, since he only needs to summon part of the ancient god's will to descend, there is no specific requirement such as transforming into a follower, so the sacrifices currently collected by the Altar of Withering are theoretically sufficient.

"Great ancient god! The master of cold and death! We pray for your coming!"

"Old God Melkion! Your followers crave your great gaze!"

……

While Alan, Luke, Alice and Marina were praying hard, Wang Zhifan was paying attention to the changes in the Altar of Withering, that is, the blue stone.

Ordinary cultists only know the name of this thing and rarely see it, because ordinary cultists are the sacrifices of the temple. When they see this thing, it means they will be sacrificed, and it is difficult to have a second chance to see it. Other cultists may have seen its appearance, but they will only think it is a strange stone blocking the door of the temple, and they will not guess that it is the so-called apoptosis altar.

"The students have been praying for a while, but the altar has not changed. Do we need to add more offerings?"

After thinking about it, Wang Zhifan threw the elite cultists he had frozen into the range of the blue stone, making them the sacrifices to be absorbed and strengthening the energy intensity of the stone, but the ritual remained unchanged and no great will descended.

"It really doesn't work. This Melkion is totally uncooperative. Maybe He is still sleeping and hasn't woken up yet. Maybe He doesn't like the things humans have offered... Should I try to contact another ancient god, Dagon?"

Having hit a wall, Wang Zhifan quickly asked the students to stop praying and instead asked them to do archaeological recording work. Based on the recent efforts of the cultists, he realized that this path was no longer feasible, and he immediately began to think about the next action plan.

For now, this dungeon gave him a particularly strange feeling. The enemies he encountered were obviously very weak and there was no difficulty in fighting, but the requirements for passing the dungeon were very harsh and difficult to achieve, making him feel uncomfortable as if he was tied up and unable to use his strength.

In order to pass the level smoothly, he inevitably plans to contact more ancient gods and take greater risks. After all, according to the information he has obtained so far, the ancient gods are about to wake up. If he does not pass the level early, the troubles he will encounter later will be even greater. (End of this chapter)